Flamenco

Yesterday I heard one person saying that all kind of arts are like religion, because it is the only one thing in life which can connect others without any harm. It means that dancers´ shows, singers´ performances, painters´ paintings, photographers´ photos, sculptors´ sculptures etc., it is all like a temples  for us.

Actually I can say that I agree with this idea and I guess all of us have something what we enjoy most, one people can mention some djs, other - Vivaldi, one can say the best thing for them is dancing or just watch how other dance waltz, salsa, street dance, etc. Some people would say that there is nothing better in their lives than photography, other would chose - painting. I do not believe that there are people who do not like anything. So according to this, I am not saying that flamenco is my favourite dance, but I can easily call it one of them, because it is one of the most characteristic elements of Spanish culture, especially throughout the southern region of Andalucia!
So flamenco is a genuine Spanish art form, or, to be more exact, a genuine Southern Spanish art. It exists in three forms: el cante, the song, el baile, the dance, and la guitarra, the guitar playing. 

It is such a nice view for people´s eyes, I think everyone would enjoy! It has such a passionating sound and the rhythm! It feels like all of me doesn´t belong to me anymore, I can just let my soul free! 

Shame that at the beggining people did not accept this kind of dance because it was associated with gypsies and they seemed to be a second-rate nation that´s why other people did not want to see or do anything what comes close to them (as described in the book of Emma Martinez: "Flamenco... All You Wanted to Know"). 

In the seventeenth century society gradually began to enjoy flamenco as an integral part of the culture, which in itself has very much passion and feelings. Flamenco's popularity began to seamlessly grow when people started to see the beauty of it: enchanted music, guitar vibrations and passionate dance or an incredible body language! 
I am happy about having a chance to see the beauty of Spanish culture (not even flamenco, but everything about this sunny country) and feel like a part of it. Well atleast for a while! 

Help Ukraine!

13th of January 1991 was the day in Lithuania, when thousands of lithuanians were standing around the TV tower in Vilnius to protect their country and get their independence back from Soviet Uninion. People wanted to be free, they were not afraid of death because their hearts did not let them to give up. We (lithuanian people) were hoping to get help from other countries as well, we wanted to show all the world, that we WANT to be FREE! And we made it! I am really thankful to them unarmed people who were not afraid of Soviets´tanks because they were more afraid of loosing their hope to become free than tanks or army...

Moreaover, when I see whats going on in Ukraine, I want to stand up and help them, talk about it as loud as I can! Once we got help from others, now someone is asking help from us. Of course, it is a different reason why things like this are going on over there, but idea is same - people want to be free. Free from corruption, from injustice, inequality! They want to live normal, civilized lives. They want to have country where government would not be selfish. Are they asking for too much? 

We are information society, we can get news about everything all over the world, we are able ´´to go for a walk´´ in the different country only by using internet programs, we can watch direct TV news from any place of the world. Also we are using technologies in almost every step we take, almost all of us having smart phones, taking pictures of our food or tan or new manicure, we are showing everyone that we are going to gym or park or party. All of us feeling such an important people who have such a good lives... So maybe it is time to see other things as well? Meanwhile you are googling about party-someone is fighting for their freedom! 

Let´s not ignore it, let´s speak about it, let´s show that we care, let´s support FREEDOM! Let´s show all the world that all of us speak the only one language - people union! 

Pablo Picasso: a bright personality and the unforgettable mark in the world.

Pablo Picasso - the famous Spanish painter, cubist. In his works people are able to find 5 different periods of arts and history. 1. The blue 2. Rose 3. Inspired by African Black 4. Analytic Cubism 5. Classicism and Surrealism All of these periods are different and people are able to find different ideas, lifestyles, meanings in all of them. THE BLEU PERIOD:

This period consists of dark blue and other dark colours, which make paitings look full of sadness and depression. In most of the paintings people are able to see tired mothers with their children, blind people or people who do not have enough food or feeling the cold. This period shows the bad side of the society, the reality which people do not really want to see or to acknowledge. Furthermore , in my opinion, despite all of these things - this period is like a awakening for the society and make people think about how important is to appreciate mothers, how important is feel sorry for them who live in a really poor conditions. I think Pablo Picaso has touched lots of humans´hearts. ROSE PERIOD:

This period is totally different than one I just mentioned, this period has got more ´´warm´´ colours like yellow, orange, rose. And the main characters showed on the paintings are artist from circus, clowns, harlequins. Seems like painter is trying to show the happiness, but on my opinion he is showing circus artist because they are known as happy and them who are making society laugh, but all in reality of the artists have masks.. AFRICAN BLACK 

In this period people are able to find primitiviness of the society and also mix between african art and cubism. I think this period is really interesting and people can find many different details which match up to each other at the same time. ANALYTIC CUBISM 

Analytic cubism "analyze" natural forms and reduce the forms into basic geometric parts on the two-dimensional picture plane. Color is almost non-existent except for the use of a monochromatic scheme that often included grey, blue and ochre. Instead of an emphasis on color, Analytic cubism is period when Pablo Picaso was focused on forms like the cylinder, sphere and the cone to represent the natural world. CLASSICISM AND SURREALISM

After cubism, Picasso returned to more traditional patterns -if not exactly classical ones - and this period is thus known as his Classicist period. A typical example of this new style is The Lovers. From time to time, he would return to cubism. His collaboration with the Ballet Russe went on: he worked on décor for “Le Tricorne” and drew portraits of the dancers. In 1920, he began to work on the décor for Stravinsky’s ballet Pulcinella. With the birth of his son Paul (Paolo) (1921), he returned to the Mother and Child theme again and again. All in all, Picasso the artist became the genius that can only be compared with few human beings. He rewarded art not just with his creative and unique styles, but also with the innumerous paintings, drawings, sculptures he produced. I think without Picasso, modern art and the world would be much poorer, so that is why I decided to write about one of my favorite painters of all times, the unique Pablo Picasso.

Consumer society

Today is Valentine´s day and all I can say that it has became so cheap. I can not find the true meaning of this day anymore. As much as I´ve seen it today I can tell you how Valentine´s day looks like: People on Facebook who are posting photos where everyone can see what presents they got from their partners. Partners mean people with whom they are in a relationship with but of course they have to keep changing their status every two weeks, nevermind that it is a Valentine´s day!

Moreover, on my opinoin Valentine´s day is nothing about true love anymore, it is about trying to look cool in front of others. All of the marketing tricks like: little hearts, teddy bears, balloons - do we really need it? Why don´t we just go out for a dinner, for a walk, or just do whatever else romantic to celebrate this day? Because we are a consumer society.

Why do I say consumer society? Because lots of poeple just buying things (which they do not need) only because they have the money, they want to look better in front of others, they are trying to hide some kind of lack in their lives. It is such a waste of earth resources. Unfortunately lots of people do not really care about nature for example, about other people who do not even have food to eat, so I can say that these people just do not care about the world they live in. At least they have a lot of new clothes made in Indonesia by little children. Good for them :) I can easily say that Christmas lost the true meaning as well, everyone is like mad going to shops to get presents, presents, presents! A little example, in Lithuania we have a really important day on 1st of November, it is when people put candles on the graves of the people they knew. It is like a gesture to show that they still think and care about them, they still love them. It has always used to be very deep tradition, but gradually over the time it has became more and more different. For example some of the young generation don´t even know what's this special day is all about!, they celebrate Halloween which actually has got nothing to do with 1st of November. Well, I do not want to put that we are brainless, it is nothing about this. I am just wondering why sometimes we are so primitive? We are behaving as a modern society which is full of information about everything, but we do not look like we know something more than for example sales. So is it mean that this information doesn´t reach us? Or are we brainwashed by media, so all we care is buying things? In my opinion the way how people celebrate and understand the meaning of this special occasions it is also the best example to show what society we are living in. Happy Valentine´s day! :)

Stranger

Couple days ago a friend of mine sent me a video which was about goodness. I will shortly introduce you the main idea of the video. Action was taken in Turkey, Izmir. A little girl was selling napkins (this is really popular in Turkey that little kids are just going out to the streets and sell napkins, bottles of water or other things), so that girl seen a lady who was sitting on the bench and crying. Girl came to that lady and gave her napkins, meanwhile lady was looking for money - girl just went. 

lady smiled and rang her boyfriend (they had argument before that´s why she was crying but suddenly she realized that it was the time to sort everything out). Her boyfriend was so excited about his girlfriend, that he went out from the restaurant to see her and left 50 lire to a waiter. It made waiter´s day better as well. On his (waiter´s) way home he saw an old lady selling a bread on the street for the birds (it is also common thing in Turkey), he went to her and bought it, she was looking for change but he just left 20 lire for her and went away. She was so excited about getting extra money which she spent for meat in the shop and of course - she left change for shop  assistant too. In the end - lady came back home, she was cooking dinner and a little girl (same one who was selling napkins) came back home to her grandma...
So the main idea is that girl opened her heart to a crying lady and despite the fact that it was just a little thing, but still it made five other people happier and in the end even the little girl too. 

So I was watching this video and thinking maybe it is actually true, we just need to smile to one another, help each other and you never know what your smile or goodness can bring to someone or someone else´s to you. 

According to this story yesterday I had a chance to see similar situation in reality. One man was walking in front of me, he seemed really excited about something. Suddenly I saw him opening the doors for a lady, after that I saw him helping a cleaner, he lifted the rubbish bin and helped her to take it all the way upstairs.

When I saw him walking away, taking big strides - I was still standing there and looking at him. I realized that he did not even looked at me, but he still made my day better, i wanted to go and help everyone on my way as well! 

Fairy Tale

Once upon a time in a big jungle was living a lion, he wasn´t threatful or harmful, but he was lonely because everyone else around him thought that he is spoiled and dangerous so no one wanted to talk to him. Lion used to walk in the jungle on his own and he didn´t even felt like a King, he did not trust himself and actually he felt afraid to talk to someone because he didn´t know what to say.

In a different jungle which was much smaller was living a roe-deer. She had lots of friends, everyone used to like her. She was very pretty, funny and clever, other animals used to adore her, so she became a little spoiled, but no one cared. Animals just used to enjoy their time with her.
One day roe-deer woke up and she realized that it was time for her to move on to the bigger place where she would be able to achieve good things in her life, she felt in her heart that she needs to do something special, so she went away without any sadness about leaving her friends, because she knew that someone else was waiting for her, she did not know who but she felt like someone was shouting her name without realizing it.
So she went away: she made friends over there, everyone liked her as well, she did not felt lonely, but she was keep thinking that she needs to do something else, it was not enough what she had, there was something missing in her life, something what was really important.

 One day roe-deer was walking in the  jungle and she saw a lion, she was not afraid of him, because magpie (who knew all the secrets of the jungle) told her before that lion was vegetarian.
Roe - deer was very cute so straight away she went to talk to lion, but he did not look like he wanted to talk to her, roe - deer did not care, she was still trying to talk to him, make jokes, jump everywhere around him, laugh and cuddle him. So finally, after couple months, lion gave up and they became a good friends, they used to go for a walk in the jungle, pick flowers together, watch the stars and talk about everything and at the same time about nothing. Roe - deer knew that lion always loved train rails, so they used to go out from the jungle near the road and watch them.They even enjoyed the silence around them, they could just look at each other and smile. Other animals in the jungle knew what was going on, they felt that one day roe-deer and lion would fall in love with each other and because of jealousy they were trying to stop it! But it was impossible it was already too late - roe-deer and lion became the happiest animals in the jungle, they had such a big feelings to each other, it was unbelievable!

Unfortunately, after one year roe-deer still had that feeling in her heart about doing something else in her life, she felt like there were places in the world where she needed to go and help other animals from suffer, places where some animals was not even able to drink water, because there was non. Lion did not like that idea, because he could not realize what she was talking about, after long conversations lion said that he can travel with her, but roe-deer did not accept that, she knew that lion does not belong over there and she did not want to make him unhappy, so she left everything and she moved away. She was trying to find out what her heart was telling her, she was trying to ask the way, but no one replied, so she got lost and all she wanted was go back to her lion, but she could not give up.
After long years of trying she realized what her heart was telling her - her heart was telling her that finaly she found her home, she found the place where she belongs to, she found the best partner in her life - her lion.

Roe - deer went back from long journey to tell everything to her lion, but she looked at him and she realized that her lion became a King, who was not vegetarian anymore. He became dangerous and she did not belong in his jungle anymore, they were talking different languages: his language was ignorance, her language was love... They already were living on a different planets. Lion had lots of friends, meanwhile roe-deer had never been so lonely before like she was that time.

She realized that she did not save the world, she did not help anyone, but she made her lion to become a King, ´´maybe it is exactly  how it should be?´´-she asked herself and left.

My name is me and me is my country

According to the fact that I am on Erasmus period right now I did notice when people are seeing each other for the first time: firstly they would ask you your name (and they would not remember afterwards) and secondly they would ask you name of the country you came from. 

So people would forget your name, but they would´t forget your country, they would say ¨Lithuanian girl¨, ¨German guy¨etc. 

After this kind of question I am always trying to figure out what they think when they see me not like an individual person -  Judita, but like a Lithuanian girl. It can actually change everything, maybe they think about European Union, maybe they still think that Lithuania is a part of Russia, maybe they think ¨where the hell is Lithuania, I need to google it¨. Anyway, first couple times when they see me they would call me a Lithuanian girl, later on I would get my name back and some of them would finaly call me by my name. Suddenly, they would start to think about me as a person: am I friendly, am I kind, am I patient, am I polite, etc. 

So if I am right and someone is calling me a Lithuanian girl, I want to show want it menas to be a part of this country and this culture. 

First of all some myth about Lithuania which some people asked me:

1. No, we do not have any civil war or war against Russia or Poland. 

2. No, we are not part of Russia or Poland, yes, we are an independent country.

3. No, we are not one of the Third World´s country.

4. Yes, we do have computers, television and so on. 

5. No, there are no fights and no one is shooting people in the streets. 

6. Yes, we are a part of European Union. 

7. No, no one is drinking vodka like a tea to keep warm. 

8. Yes, people are able to speak English, they are friendly to foreigners and ready to help. 

So what does it mean to be Lithuanian to me (I am not going to talk about history, politics, etc, because you can google it and find all the information if you are interested, my idea is to represent my own Lithuanian culture). 

My Lithuania is a place where I feel like a part of something innocent. Do you know why? because I do not harm anyone and they do not harm me too. This is the way how I live in my Lithuania.

People  sometimes complaining that shop assistants are not smilling to them, but I do not think so, I always smile to them first if they look unhappy and I always get the smile back to me. 

Once I was crossing the road with a friend of mine and I lift up my hand like saying thanks to a driver who stopped to let me go and my friend said: are you silly? you do not have to say thanks. I looked at her and asked why not, and she said: no one cares. I was surprised, because in my own Lithuanian culture everyone cares, if I am polite with someone and sweet that person might gonna be same to other, other to another and so on... 

In my Lithuania university is very important thing, all the places like libraries, theaters, museums, etc are the places which I actually adore, I like to go there so that's why I see other people going there too, so I can easilly say that my Lithuania is a country of people who enjoy knowledge and cultural lifestyle. 

In my Lithuania there are no crimes and no injustice, because I do not behave in that way, it means I do not hang out with people who behave like this, etc. So it means my Lithuania is a secure place. 

In my Lithuania I am the happiest person on the planet, you know why? Because when I feel sad I enjoy the beauty of flowers on Spring, the beauty of colorful leaves on Autumn, the beauty of snow on Winter and the beauty of birds' melody on Summer. 

And the main idea is that my Lithuania is a place which I created by my own, I would do exactly same in Turkey, In india, In Russia, In Spain, etc. So the point is that it is not so much important about the place you came from, it is more important what you built over there, so please, call me Judita because my name is me and me is my country. 

Folllow Your Dreams

Andy Dufresne is a young and successful banker whose life changes drastically when he is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover, despite the fact that he did not kill them. Movie set in the 1940's, this movie shows how Andy, with the help of his friend Red, the prison entrepreneur, turns out to be a most unconventional prisoner.

Actually, this movie is not about prison, it is about not losing hope, about being strong person no matter what, it is about honesty, justice or no justice, about doing good for others and get good back as well, it is about person, who was able not to lose hope and fight for his life even in this kind of circumstances (corrupt prison).

Also this movie shows some kind of prison life, for example: sexual abuse, brutal police officers’ behaviours, dealers, and week people, and funny people, and smart people, and good heart people...

Moreover, this movie shows that prison also can become home, for example there is one character in movie, who spent 50 years in prison and in the prison he was important man, but when he got back his freedom, he was not important anymore “over there”, in a freedom, he was not able to live his life anymore, because everything was different. In Lithuania we have saying that if you would put frog in a boiled water, frog would jump out from it, but if you would put frog in a cold water and keep boiling it, frog would stay till frog would be boiled. So it means that slowly by slowly everyone can get use to suffer and just do not feel no pain anymore. So this character from the movie was “boiling in the pot” all the time and finally they took him out, he was not able to liveother life style anymore, so he wrote on the wall: “Brooks was here” and hang himself on the rope.

I also mentioned that this movie is about justice, but not because of lowers or police officers (because in this case they were wrong). It is because of couple people who showed respect to each other, trust to each other, helped each other and were honest to each other. Furthermore, this movie shows other values: hard work, not losing hope are one of the reasons how people can achieve something. It means you cannot lose hope and have to keep trying (in this movie Andy were writing letters every week to get new books for 6 years, and he did not get bored, he was keep trying and finally he achieved it) and it is justice as well. Why? Because people deserved that, and they got it.

On the second hand, viewers are able to see injustice in this movie all the time: corrupt police officers, especially head of the prison, who knew that Andy was not guilty and did not let him tell this to no one only because he needed to use Andy’s brains for his selfish aims (to get money).   

All in all, this movie finishes exactly how everyone is willing... viewers are able to see justice again: Andy escape from the prison, Red got chance to go out from the prison earlier, corrupt police officers got arrested or even killed themselves, Andy became rich again and just started to live his normal life again, also he helped his destiny friend Red too. So the main idea of the movie is not losing hope and no matter what believe in justice and keep trying to achieve things. This movie should be really good example to those people who think that there is nothing beautiful in the world, I would agree that sometimes it seems so sad, so dark, so bad, but the main thing is – not give up, keep trying over and over again, just keep yourself going and all dreams can become true!

    

¨White power¨or why we´re so racist?

In my opinion, racism is a really important subject thats why I chose a movie which can represent the failure of it. Take your time and enjoy...

In the beginning movie “American history x” seems like a really threatening and scary movie about abominable reality. It is a movie about racism, about discrimination and about ethnic groups being oppressed by others. In the first seconds on this movie I realized that it is going to be about nationalists, on other words: skinheads. 

In the first episode Derek gets up from the bed and viewers are able to see swastika tattoo on his heart, so it can say more than thousands of words. It means he believes in “white power”, or one nation being better than others.

Later one, viewers are able to realize other one fact: older brother (Derek) is like a hero for his younger brother, because of that he is trying to behave like Derek, think like he does, act like Derek does and so on. He is only teenager right now, so he is really confused which way in his life he should choose and what should he do, older or stronger minded people are able to manipulate him and try to “help” to find a way for him. But is it right and is it a really good way for him? These questions are important to his teacher as well because of that he wants to help him not to choose a bad way or a way which Derek chose and after that regret about it (but viewers are going to find it out later on).Later people are able to see teacher and Danny conversation about his essay (Daniel wrote it in a racist way) and teacher are able to see his confusion,

indecisiveness in life, because of that he told Daniel to write a different essay “American history x” and then, in my opinion, the movie actually started.

In reality this movie has got two sides: dark side and a bright side, despite the violence and all swearing or unpleasant behavior, this movie also can be a lesson, an example for others. On my view, it is really good when people do understand that they were doing mistakes and after that they are able to change they lifestyle and habits and also try to help others to change it too, it is great when people regret about the mistakes they done and they want to fix it somehow. I think we can call it resurrection – it is like born again, isn´t? Yes! Viewers are able to see this in the movie as well: Derek came back from the jail and he is totally different (he has got his long hair; he seems more mature, more responsible, and more individual! (Derek tells his friend to leave their house, really strange because he would never do this before).

Therefore, jail is a really important thing, place, fact in this movie (we can find a lot of names for it, but for Derek it was life experience). When I hear the name – jail, I am always thinking about bad people who deserved to be there: they are wild, unstoppable; you never know what they can do, always should keep away from them and things like this. I never think about their feelings, never. I am just always trying to imagine things they done.                                             

On the one hand, I am might be right, but on the other hand, who am I to judge them? Maybe after being in jail they are going to be better people? Maybe one day one of them would help me somewhere, somehow? Maybe I would fall in love with one of them? Maybe my lovely neighbor or shop assistant was in jail too? Etc. We would never know. Actually I strongly believe that jail is not the best option. Jail would not change anything or make people better, I think it as place where people can loose themselves even more, our modern society should find other ways to stop the crimes but it is a different topic.

 Anyway,  there is a life in jail as well; people have got rules, laws, even “government” and feelings, they also missing their families or regretting about things they done, thinking about life “what if” (of course maybe  not all of them). So movie character - Derek faced it (very much so).

Derek showed swastika to his mother’s boyfriend and told him to leave the house, it means that his ideas about nationalism is more important to him than his mother’s happiness, more important than everything; he is blaming other nations about his father’s death, about all the problems in the country, about everything. And he does not care that he is frightening his family members and making them suffer.

We can hear Derek’s girlfriend saying: “everything is fine, I am proud of you, darling”. So she is proud because he is “such a big leader”, “such a brave hero”, he don’t even care about his family members’ feelings, because he is “the only one right one”. And his girlfriend thinks like him (she is also nationalist), they are like a team, like a big group of people who trying to stop the “injustice” in America.

Moreover, there is very important conversation between Derek’s mother and her boyfriend. He is trying to open her eyes that her children are living really dangerous life style, but her eyes are still closed and she thinks that the reason is living without father. Unfortunately, she is not right.

later people are able to see argument between two brothers: Derek and Daniel. Daniel is screaming and punching his older brother Derek because he is different, he is not behaving like hero anymore and Daniel feels disappointed because of Derek’s behavior. He is even more confused than before; he feels like his is losing ground under his feet, he is losing support. He needs answers.

Finally viewers are able to see what’s happened in the jail. Derek was disappointed by his “white power friends” by his team, actually by all his ideas, by everything, other nationalists raped him and only blacks helped him out after that. Derek realized that life is really easy when you have the power to construct it, when you are the hero and it is totally different when you see other reality, where you are not the hero anymore. He had a lesson about discrimination, about racism, even about himself. And because of that he wanted to change everything. Finally he understood.

So two brothers became a team again, but in a different way. They are not in a racists’ group anymore, they do not believe in it anymore, they are two individuals, who believes in harmony and people as individuals. We can be black, white, yellow, but we all have good and bad people, it is not about color it is about minds!

In the end of the movie - such a sad moment, because Daniel are killed by black boy and Derek was crying near his youngest brother’s dead body. But all he was saying: “what did I done?” he did not started to swear on blacks again or blame them; he blamed himself because he showed this way to his brother.

In conclusion I want to say that sometimes we need an electro shock to realize who we really are, what we really need. Also we need to remember that all human are same, just different color, but we all have feelings, memories, life experiences which we can share with others, and we all can cry, smile and love! Just love each other and life will be more beautiful than we can imagine. According to Daniel, hate is a heavy burden, there is no point to live like this, and life is too short for hating others!